When he first escaped from his vandalized enclosure, handlers of Flaco, a Eurasian eagle owl, doubted he could survive after spending most of his life in captivity. But 12 days after he flew the coop, the bird of prey is proving his doubters wrong.
Flaco's adventures outside captivity began Feb. 2 when zoo staff noticed him missing around 8:30 p.m. and reported to the New York Police Department that it appeared a vandal had cut the stainless steel mesh of his exhibit, according to zoo officials.Zoo staffers quickly launched a search for the owl. Stunned witnesses first spotting him on the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue near the famous Bergdorf Goodman luxury department store.
"Since our recovery strategies, thus far, have all been based on luring him to familiar food items, we need to rethink our approach," zoo officials said in their update Sunday. "Our main concern has always been for the well-being of the eagle owl. Our observations indicate that he seems to be comfortable in the area of the park where he has been hunting, and we don't want to do anything to encourage him to leave this site.
One big concern is that Flaco could eat a poisoned rat. In August 2021, a barred owl nicknamed "Barry" by Central Park birderswhen it flew into the path of a Central Park Conservancy maintenance vehicle. A necropsy done on Barry detected a potentially lethal level of rat poison that could have impaired the owl's flying abilities, officials said.
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